A critical evaluation of the lateralizing significance of material-specific memory deficits in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis

•Assessed the lateralizing value of material-specific memory deficits in patients with MTLE-HS preoperatively•Compared with controls, patients with MTLE-HS performed poorly on intelligence and memory tests.•Learning trials and delayed recall were the only tests associated with left MTLE-HS.•Prior to surgery, material-specific memory deficits are of limited value in lateralizing temporal lobe dysfunction.

To critically assess the value of material-specific memory deficits in lateralizing temporal lobe dysfunction preoperatively, we compared the neuropsychological data of 50 consecutive patients with unilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS; right: 31, left: 19) with those of 50 age- and education-matched healthy control subjects. On case-control comparison, both the subcohorts with left and right MTLE-HS performed poorly on intelligence tests, in addition to individual memory tests. However, comparison of the verbal and visual memory functions between subcohorts with right and left MTLE-HS revealed that learning trials and delayed word list recall were the only tests that hypothesized left temporal lobe dysfunction. We conclude that material-specific memory deficits are largely test driven, but there is a lateralizing role for task-specific deficits in left MTLE-HS. Although neuropsychological data help to define baseline neuropsychological impairment, caution should be exercised in interpreting the lateralizing value of material-specific memory deficits prior to surgery.